1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system, a printing system control method, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a printing system, a method in which when performing copying or printing, a sheet feeding cassette is explicitly designated, and printing or copying is performed by using a sheet from the desired sheet feeding cassette is known. In a printing system having a plurality of sheet feeding cassettes, when executing a print job with the sheet feeding cassette designated, printing may be interrupted if sheet feeding becomes impossible due to running out of sheets of the designated sheet feeding cassette. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 01-256434 discusses a method in which to solve the above problem, an auto cassette change (ACC) function can automatically switch the sheet feeding destination to a sheet feeding cassette supplied with the same kind of sheets as the designated sheet cassette.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-229738 discusses a method in which grouping is effected on sheet feeding cassettes, and th ACC is effected within a set group. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-256076 discusses a method in which any sheet feeding cassette involving incompatibility in sheet attribute is automatically removed from the group, thereby preventing printing from being stopped due to incompatibility in sheet attribute.
In such a printing system, with respect to the sheet feeding cassette that are limited entity, it is up to the user to decide what kind of attribute the sheets have, and to which sheet feeding cassette the user supply the sheets. In an image forming apparatus which is utilized by a plurality of users, the kind of sheet to be utilized differs from user to user. Thus, it frequently occurs that a user changes the sheets of each sheet feeding cassettes so as to match them to user's own purposes. When a sheet combination of sheet feeding cassettes set by a user for the execution of ACC is changed by another user, the first user is disabled to perform printing in the manner he has originally expected, with the printing being interrupted without execution of the ACC function.
On the other hand, in the techniques discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 01-256434 and in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-229738, ACC is executed so as to avoid as far as possible the generation of printing interruption within a previously set sheet feeding cassette sheet combination of the supply cassettes. In relation to these techniques, no mention is made regarding the treatment of the sheets to be removed through sheet supply. Further, in the method of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-256076, when the attribute of sheets supplied to grouped sheet feeding cassette is changed, the sheet feeding cassette is temporarily removed from the group, whereby a situation is avoided in which ACC is impossible due to incompatibility in attribute. However, no mention is made either regarding the treatment of the sheet removed through sheet supply. Accordingly, when any of a plurality of users changes the kind and size of the sheets stored in the sheet feeding cassettes for some reason, the previous user, who is the user before setting change, is not notified of the changing status. Thus, in some cases, it can happen that the user, who has changed the sheet setting previously, cannot make out why he cannot execute printing processing with sheets feeding in accordance with his intention.